50th anniversary of unsolved homicide in Burlington prompts new call to identify ‘John Doe'
His body was discovered on May 22, 1975 in a wooded area near Muller Road, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Burlington police Chief Thomas Browne said in a joint statement Thursday.
In particular, law enforcement officials are calling on New England families of Italian, Spanish, or Greek extraction, who may have lost touch with a younger male relative in the early 1970s, to contact them.
The man suffered fatal head wounds, was determined to be in his late 20s or early 30s. He wore a necklace around his neck with a distinctive round medallion depicting two faces, authorities said.
'Thousands of families across our country have lost loved ones to murder,' Ryan said in a statement. 'The bodies of many of these victims have never been recovered and given a proper burial. Others have been recovered, but never identified, and are buried in unmarked graves. This office is committed to identifying all victims of homicide and giving their grieving families closure.'
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The victim was likely between 5-feet, 10 inches and 6-feet tall, with long dark hair, and probably had a beard, officials said.
He wore a T-shirt, jeans, canvas sneakers, an army fatigue-style jacket, and a garrison-type belt with a distinctive buckle, according to the statement.
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An eyeglass case was found at the burial site, suggesting the victim wore glasses, authorities said.
Over 45 years, multiple leads went nowhere.
In 2023 the Cold Case Unit in the DA's office obtained a search warrant authorizing the exhumation of the victim's remains from where they were buried in an unmarked grave in Burlington, according to the statement.
DNA samples taken from the victim's bones and teeth were analyzed by a forensic genetic genealogy firm that determined that he was likely of Southern European extraction.
'However, no close relative of the victim has been identified,' the joint statement said.
'It is my hope that this new information will get people to take another close look at this case and call authorities with any information that might help us to identify this individual,' Browne's statement said.
Investigators can be contacted at 781-897-6600, or by email at
Tonya Alanez can be reached at
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Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Rifles, stun grenades, armored trucks in ICE raids spur tensions
The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to round up migrants. It's also doing so with increasingly aggressive tactics. In scenes from San Diego to Massachusetts, agents outfitted with bullet-resistant vests and often displaying military-style rifles are shown in social media videos and photos being escorted along city streets by armored vehicles. A clip from Rhode Island shows an agent standing in a truck's open hatch, manning a rifle. The operations led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often joined by local law enforcement, have coincided with a dramatic increase in arrests of people for running afoul of immigration laws — with ICE reporting more than 1,600 daily apprehensions. That's more than double the 630 average of recent weeks and a roughly 450% increase over typical numbers during former President Joe Biden's last year in office. The latest figures are still barely half of the administration's goal, but the White House is rapidly moving forward with efforts to remove legal obstacles to deportations while ramping up prison capacity and enforcement capability. In the meantime, it's deploying social-media videos with quick edits and throbbing techno beats, made-for-TV moments to get attention. 'This is not normal,' said David Shirk, a political science professor and expert on U.S.-Mexico border issues at the University of San Diego. 'It is a response to what has been a long-standing problem that is greatly exaggerated and intended to convey a sense of shock and awe.' Critics have long decried the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces, which took off after equipment used in the Iraq war was handed over to state and local forces. In the case of ICE's immigration raids, Shirk and others say the tactics aren't only over the top, they risk further inflaming already tense situations, making it more dangerous for the targets, bystanders and the agents themselves. They say the raids are disproportionate to the threat and seem designed to maximize optics for Trump and his supporters, while demonizing migrants who lack legal status but are otherwise law abiding. ICE officials are unapologetic about the shows of force, saying agents must take maximum precautions to protect themselves from dangerous gang members and other criminals. And if the high-profile raids encourage other migrants without documentation to leave, all the better. In social media posts, ICE routinely urges people to avoid arrest by self deporting. In San Diego last week, an operation targeting workers at the popular Italian restaurant Buona Forchetta included agents dressed in camouflage, helmeted and masked, and some carrying rifles. It drew as many as 250 spontaneous protesters who shouted abuse at the agents. Eventually officials deployed stun grenades to disperse the crowd. The agency declined to specify the exact number of arrests or detail any criminal records of those taken into custody. 'The officers took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security department, said in a statement. 'In large part due to protests like this, our ICE officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults while carrying out arrests.' Operations across Massachusetts over the past month resulted in the arrests of nearly 1,500 people for immigration violations, more than half of whom the government said had criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Heavily armed and masked officers were involved in many of the apprehensions. In raids in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard last month, about 40 people were arrested and moved out of the area on a Coast Guard patrol boat. In February, agents in Phoenix used an armored vehicle equipped with a battering ram when they arrested a 61-year-old man. At the time, the agency described the arrest as part of a routine operation and said the man had been deported several times and had multiple criminal convictions. 'The more police dress up in military gear and arm themselves with military equipment, the more likely they are to see themselves as at war with people, and that is not what we want,' said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project manager for policing at the American Civil Liberties Union. An expanded show of force by policing agencies can 'lead to unnecessary violence that leads to unnecessary harm,' she added. Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, this week defended agents' actions, including wearing masks, saying it was for their protection as the public grows increasingly hostile toward their work. 'I am sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, and their family's lives on the line, because people don't like what immigration enforcement is,' Lyons said during a press conference. He cited incidents of people identifying agents and then harassing them and their family members online, sometimes posting children's photos and other private information. The agency has made tens of thousands of arrests and deported tens of thousands of foreigners since Trump took office. But top administration aren't happy with the pace. In a tense meeting last month with dozens of top ICE officials Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump and an architect of the the administration's hardline policies, said arrests should average a minimum of 3,000 a day. Many of those senior agents and officers left the meeting worried they would lose their jobs if the quota isn't met, according to a person familiar with the private discussion. The growing frequency of operations — and the gear agents are toting — can be unsettling to community members who aren't accustomed to such broad enforcement operations, according to Jerry Robinette, a former ICE agent who led the agency's Homeland Security Investigations office in San Antonio until he retired in 2012. 'They are in areas where people aren't used to seeing them and some folks are taken aback by what they are seeing, taken aback by the show of force,' said Robinette, adding that it's hard to second guess the show of force in San Diego without more details. 'Without knowing what the underlying crime that they were concerned about, its really hard to say this was an overkill.' Robinette and others said raids involving heavily armed and helmeted agents aren't unheard of in HSI operations. He said a more robust presence is often used in cases involving serious criminal organizations, including drug trafficking networks. In Warwick, Rhode Island, last month, a heavily armed contingent of officers was deployed to arrest a Guatemalan man who had evaded arrest during an April traffic stop. In that incident, according to federal court records, the suspect flailed about and wiggled away from arresting officers, leading one to twist her ankle and ultimately fracture her leg. The suspect was charged with assault, resisting and impeding a law enforcement officer after his May arrest. He is being held in federal custody, court records show. In San Diego, there's been no clarity on who was targeted by the ICE raid at the Italian restaurant. The tactics raised alarms from local officials. 'Militarized immigration raids in our neighborhoods erode trust, destabilize families and undermine the constitutional right to due process,' County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said in a statement posted to X. City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera posted a photo of the restaurant raid to Instagram and wrote the word 'terrorists' over the image. Others have described ICE agents as a 'gestapo.' Lyons, in an interview with Fox News, said such descriptions of his officers were 'just plain disgusting.' Elo-Rivera said he stands by his comments, and described the show of force as unnecessary and intended to instill fear. 'It would scare anyone who saw them,' Elo-Rivera said. 'Nobody is safer as a result of the Trump administration attempting to enforce immigration laws.' Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
2,000 National Guard troops will be sent to LA amid clashes over immigration raids
LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration said it would send 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles after a second day in which protesters confronted immigration agents during raids of local businesses. The move marks a major escalation in Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and came amid concerns from some officials in California. The Guard has been deployed to Los Angeles previously, but it has been during widespread civil unrest, including the upheaval associated with the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd, as well as the riots that occurred after the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Los Angeles has seen several violent clashes during the recent immigration raids, but they have been limited to isolated areas including the Home Depot in Paramount, a location in L.A.'s fashion district and at the Civic Center. Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School, noted that when the National Guard was sent to L.A. before, it was because we as a state requested it and it was coordinated. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley Law School, said in a text to the Los Angeles Times that Trump has the authority under the Insurrection Act of 1807 to federalize the national guard units of states to suppress 'any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy' that 'so hinders the execution of the laws.' But he called the move very troubling. Such deployment typically happen during 'extreme circumstances... here it seems it was an early response. And I fear that it is to send a message to protesters of the willingness of the federal government to use federal troops to quell protests.' In the most serious incident, a crowd gathered in Paramount in a protest that escalated over the course of the day into a fiery and tumultuous clash with federal agents. By afternoon, the confrontation near a Home Depot at 6400 Alondra Blvd. was declared an unlawful assembly, and officials warned protesters in Spanish and English to quit the scene immediately. During the protest, at least one protester was injured, witnesses reported, and a Border Patrol official said an agent was hurt. Meanwhile, Tom Homan, the Trump administration's 'border czar,' said officials were cracking down hard on the unrest and that the National Guard would be deployed to the city Saturday night. California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed Saturday that the federal government was moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. Newsom criticized the federal action in a statement Saturday evening, saying that local law enforcement was already mobilized and that sending in troops was a move that was 'purposefully inflammatory' and would 'only escalate tensions.' '(T)here is currently no unmet need,' Newsom said. 'This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.' At the Paramount protest, chants of 'Fuera ICE' — ICE, get out — could be heard as flash-bang grenades deployed by federal agents lighted up the scene. The agents appeared to include members of Border Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations. A group of protesters on a street corner shouted expletives and that there was 'nothing but noise.' Shortly afterward, the grenades exploded at their feet, causing them to briefly scatter. A Los Angeles Times reporter watched one protester gather a bag of trash and light it on fire in the middle of Alondra Boulevard, half a block from where immigration agents were gathered. 'This is a difficult time for our city. As we recover from an unprecedented natural disaster, many in our community are feeling fear following recent federal immigration enforcement actions across Los Angeles County. Reports of unrest outside the city, including in Paramount, are deeply concerning. We've been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C., and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward,' L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said after the National Guard deployment was announced. Saturday's scene in Paramount followed raids across Los Angeles on Friday that led to the arrests of 44 people on suspicion of immigration violations, and another on suspicion of obstructing justice. 'Federal law enforcement operations are proceeding as planned this weekend in Los Angeles County,' U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said on X as the standoff unfolded. 'I urge the public to refrain from interfering with these lawful actions. Anyone who obstructs federal agents will face arrest and prosecution.' In his Fox News interview, Homan, the president's former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and now 'border czar,' made unsubstantiated claims about the people who had been arrested, saying they included child sex offenders, gang members and national security threats. 'They arrested a lot of bad people yesterday and today,' Homan said. 'We're making Los Angeles safer and Mayor (Karen) Bass ought to be thanking us for making her city safer.' Homan also remarked that ICE agents were often wearing masks as they conducted raids because they were worried about their families being doxxed. In Paramount, a city that is 82% Latino, protesters gathered along Alondra Boulevard Saturday after reports that ICE officers were targeting people at a Home Depot where day laborers commonly gather in search of work. A group of protesters stationed themselves near the Alondra exit of the 710 Freeway, as a second gathered by the Home Depot. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene about 11 a.m. The department clarified in a statement that it 'was not involved in any federal law enforcement operations or actions,' and was present only to assist with traffic and crowd control. By Saturday afternoon, bright orange shopping carts from Home Depot and a blue recycling bin were scattered across the boulevard. The air was acrid with smoke. Federal agents deployed round after round of flash-bangs and pepper balls. Some of the projectiles struck protesters, witnesses said. One woman among the protest group appeared to be bleeding, and another man was treated for injuries. 'There were some individuals around him throwing bricks. One of the windows got shattered and he was knocked unconscious. He seemed in a pretty bad state,' said Nico Thompson-Lleras, an attorney with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights who witnessed the incident. He said it was unclear whether the man was hit by a vehicle, a weapon or something else. Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons, who was present at the scene, said she had not learned of any arrests at the Home Depot. She said the confrontation appeared to have started after protesters spotted immigration officers staging in a nearby business plaza where DHS has an office. She encouraged the crowd to stay calm to avoid violence. She said she was told that the Department of Homeland Security was targeting Home Depots across the county in search of undocumented residents. But she has had little communication from federal authorities about their actions in the city she represents, which is about 4.5 square miles and home to about 57,000 people. 'We don't know what was happening, or what their target was. To think that there would be no heightening of fear and no consequences from the community doesn't sound like good preparation to me,' she said. 'Above all, there is no communication and things are done on a whim. And that creates chaos and fear.' The city of Paramount released a statement reaffirming it was not working with ICE or assisting the immigration operations in any way. 'As a city, we are committed to fostering a safe and welcoming environment for all members of our community — regardless of immigration status,' the statement read. There was no raid at the Paramount Home Depot on Saturday, a federal official told The Times. Helicopter footage from the scene showed law enforcement vehicles blocking access as they closed the road. Border Patrol agents stood lined up. Sheriff's deputies set off flash-bangs to clear a freeway exit of protesters. A U.S. Marshals Service bus approaching the location was surrounded by a crowd as it exited the freeway. Protesters kicked the vehicle and pushed back in an attempt to stop it, before another federal vehicle pulled up alongside the bus. An agent appeared to shoot tear gas to push the crowd back. Lindsay Toczylowski, chief executive of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in a post on X that ICE agents threw a teargas canister at two female attorneys with the organization, after they approached to ask calmly that they be allowed to see a warrant and observe the action. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident. 'ICE has brought their terror tactics and masked agents to#Paramount this morning - in my district,' wrote U.S. Rep Nanette D. Barragán, whose district includes Paramount, in a post on X. 'This is unacceptable. We will demand answers and accountability. For those out there - please stay safe, protest peacefully, and KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.' Protesters burned an American flag while others waved Mexican flags. Some began lining the boulevard with large cement bricks. One immigration agent was cut on his hand from a rock that sailed through his windshield, according to a social media post by U.S. Border Patrol chief Michael W. Banks. Federal officials struck an ominous tone. 'Multiple arrests have already been made for obstructing our operations,' FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on X. 'More are coming. We are pouring through the videos for more perpetrators. You bring chaos, and we'll bring handcuffs.' José Luis Solache Jr., the California Assembly member who represents the Paramount area that includes the Home Depot, said he was on the way to a community event when he saw Border Patrol cars exit the freeway. He decided to turn around. Solache said he arrived and began observing alongside other demonstrators in a peaceful effort when the agents started shooting off canisters in their direction, forcing him and others to run through the smoke. After identifying himself to agents, he tried to get information about what they were doing, but they would not answer his questions, he said. 'You see the community here, demonstrating that they don't want them here,' he said as flash-bangs went off nearby. 'Our hardworking communities are being targeted. These are hardworking families. These are not criminals. You're going to facilities where people are literally working.' Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Chicago Tribune
15 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Pride and community at Sox Mexican Heritage Night game amid immigration crackdowns
There are few things more American than baseball. But on a recent Mexican Heritage Night at Rate Field, it was something more layered, more defiant and deeply moving. Amid the crack of bats and the roar of the crowd, this sliver of the South Side of Chicago felt like it belonged — completely — to its people. To the vendors shouting in Spanish, the kids in their Sox jerseys, the swaying to mariachi in the stands. The smell of and the sound of Banda music coming from the parking lot. They were all there to watch baseball and to celebrate their culture despite the newfound fear sparked by immigration crackdowns in the city of Chicago and its surroundings. In that space, at a Sox game against the Kansas City Royals, for a few sacred hours, joy roared louder than fear. To be sure, few places feel completely safe for Mexicans nowadays. Many now have strong roots in Chicago, their families are a mix of U.S. citizens and loved ones who are lacking permanent legal status. That means that most times, everyone is on high alert. For many Chicagoans, deportations are starting to hit home. Just last Wednesday, an estimated 20 people were rounded up during surprise check-ins at the federal agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program offices in Chicago. Similar arrests were reported that day in New York, San Jose and Birmingham. More reports of raids at suburban factories spread through the end of the week. So for many, it is a strange, almost surreal thing to celebrate their roots in a public arena these days. In a country where anti-immigrant rhetoric has again tightened its grip, where deportation raids are haunting families like shadows on back porches, where policies continue to dehumanize under the guise of 'law and order,' showing pride can feel like an act of rebellion. While the White Sox as an organization steers clear of making overt political statements, its commitment is to create an inclusive, welcoming environment, said Sheena Quinn, vice president of public relations for the White Sox. Quinn said that nights like these are not about politics, but about community — about making sure every fan feels seen, valued and celebrated. ,' as my Mexican grandfather said. The team of the people. There's a reason these nights matter. They aren't just cultural marketing or feel-good footnotes. They are necessary sanctuaries — moments of unapologetic presence. In a time when neighbors who lack permanent legal status are being disappeared from their jobs or at immigration hearings, when headlines reduce human beings to statistics or threats, to be seen and celebrated in the open air of a stadium is no small thing. And the beauty of baseball is that it offers something like solidarity, even if unspoken. You can sit next to someone you might never talk to on the street — an old-school South Sider, a first-gen college kid, a Polish grandma, a Mexican father with his daughters — and for nine innings, you're all just fans. The field becomes neutral ground. The flags waving — U.S. and Mexican — remind us that identity isn't binary. It's layered, sometimes conflicted, always rich. There's healing in that. And hope. Because joy, in the face of trauma, is a kind of resistance. Celebrating your culture in the open, without apology or permission, is its own form of protest. And when a community gathers — not in mourning or defense, but in celebration — it says something powerful: We're still here. We belong. So yes, the night ended like any other ballgame. Final score posted. Sox won 2-7 and had a majestic fireworks show while '' by Vicente Fernández played in the background. Fans trailed out to their cars. But what lingered wasn't just a win or a loss. It was a sense of collective breath — a reminder that joy isn't frivolous. It's fuel. It's armor. And in the face of everything this country continues to throw at immigrant communities, that joy under stadium lights may be the most radical thing of all.
